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October in mind, Wagner adds pitch

October in mind, Wagner adds pitch

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By Marty Noble
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MLB.com |

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- He was involved in the bunt coverage drills and made an impression with his seemingly effortless but powerful throws to bases. Then, Ambiorix Burgos moved to the mound of an adjacent field for live batting practice and his pitches popped into the catcher's mitt, the audible manifestation of his power arm.

In this Mets camp and at this early stage, the 22-year-old reliever imported from the Royals is the king of pop, a label that has almost always belonged to closer Billy Wagner, regardless of the date or the uniform he's worn.

Wagner has no problem deferring to Burgos, who is 13 years his junior and significantly bigger than the left-handed Wagner.

"Other camps I've been in have had guys lighting it up," Wagner said. "I never throw great in the spring."

What makes this camp different for Wagner is that he is deferring to time as well. After enduring a less-than-fulfilling, low-octane October, he decided less might mean more for him. Call it a split decision.

Wagner is working on developing a split-finger fastball, a pitch designed to complement his normal four-seam fastball and, more to the point, enable him to reach the end of the season -- whenever that might be -- with fuel still in his tank.

It's what a power pitcher does these days if he's in his mid-30s or older.

With an expression of consternation, Wagner acknowledged on Wednesday that "I had nothing left when we went to St. Louis."

He had thrown 1,242 pitches in 70 regular-season appearances before facing the Dodgers in the National League Division Series, and by the time he took on the Cardinals, Wagner had thrown another 58 -- 1,300 pitches for No. 13, more than he had thrown in all but one his previous 10 seasons.

Wagner was hardly dominant in his two appearances against the Cardinals, surrendering three runs in two-thirds of an inning in a Game 2 loss and allowing two runs in one inning in Game 6. A 26.99 ERA in the NLCS is not what Wagner or the Mets had in mind 11 months earlier, when he was put in charge of happy endings.

And those numbers came after a regular-season performance that Wagner himself characterized as "not an impressive year."